A Hands-On Education

A Hands-On Education

After Leanne Ford Shaffer and her husband, Brad Shaffer—the brains behind Acre Goods Services, a creative agency focused on interior design, styling, and branding—got married in 2010, the couple began looking for a new home. A Craigslist search for a rental unexpectedly led to a mortgage: The Shaffers scoped out a 1907 schoolhouse—anchoring two wooded acres in the village of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, 13 miles northwest of Pittsburgh—on a Saturday and made an offer the next Monday.

In this photo: A vintage chalkboard and classroom chair reference the home's past. The bar cart was a gift; the couple bought the painted wooden eagle during a trip to Australia.

Before: Kitchen

Before: Kitchen

A faux-brick backsplash? Dark cabinets? Formica counters? This room boasted every bad-kitchen cliché. "Within a week, we'd taken a sledgehammer to the kitchen," Leanne remembers. "The place was ugly, and it wasn't our style at all."

What came next was an adventure in DIY renovation. As the Shaffers stripped away the structure's unfortunate 1960s alterations, they discovered stunning details. Brad pulled up layers of jaundiced-looking linoleum to reveal pine floors.